Mom was sent back to Nepal over a misunderstanding at immigration

Under a procedure called “expedited removal,” CBP can send someone back without a hearing if either he or she committed fraud or does not have the proper visa. (Moussa81/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Q: An immigration airport officer ordered my mother sent back to Nepal in 2010 when she tried to come here on a visitor's visa. I am a U.S. citizen. Can my mother get an immigrant visa so she can join me in the United States?

When she came here in 2010, she told the immigration officer that she sometimes worked as a babysitter. That wasn't true, so it seems there was some misunderstanding.

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T., New York

A: You can petition now for your mother to immigrate. She should get here in about a year. It seems that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection airport officer sent your mother back under a procedure called "expedited removal."

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Under that procedure, CBP can send someone back without a hearing if either he or she committed fraud or does not have the proper visa. Your mother didn't have the proper visa. Visitor's visa holders can't be employed.

As a person removed under the expedited removal procedure, your mother may return after five years abroad.

Start your mother's case by filing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. To see if she was, in fact, removed under the expedited removal program, have your mother get her records by filing a Freedom of Information Act request with CBP. Learn how to file an FOIA request online at bit.ly/2p7Muhm.

Q: I was age 17 when my mom became a U.S. citizen. I'm now 41. Did I get U.S. citizenship automatically through my mother?

Simone Rainford, the Bronx

A: Because you were already over 18 when the law became more generous on Feb. 27, 2001, to claim U.S. citizenship through your mother, you must have become a permanent resident before turning 18, and one of the following must also have been true before you turn 18: Your father became a U.S. citizen, you were born "illegitimate," your father had died, or your parents were divorced or separated and your mother had legal custody of you.

Allan Wernick is an attorney and director of the City University of New York's Citizenship Now! project. Send questions and comments to Allan Wernick, New York Daily News, 7th Fl., 4 New York Plaza, New York, N.Y., 10004 or email to questions@allanwernick.com. Follow him on Twitter @awernick.